中澳移民留学

Some countries achieve international success, building specialised sports facilities for top athletes to train instead of providing sports facilities that everyone can use. Positive or negative?

There has been so much buzz over the years about public sports resource management that it has become a worldwide topic. While some countries managed to stand their ground insisting that much priority should be given to top athletes who can showcase their talents on a global stage, others may beg to differ, for they believe that facilities should be governed in the interest of the majority of public. 

On one hand, some of those specialised facilities never benefitted top sportsmen, as a direct result of low density in local prospects. Let us not forget what happened in Brazil since last summer’s Soccer World Cup. They built a stadium in a suburb of Brasilia in an effort to win the bidding for the hosting right of the tournament and thus draw the most elite players from the world to perform in Brazil, in the hope that it could bring accolades and worldwide reputation to the country. Unfortunately, because of a lacking of local sports team in the region, the stadium only managed to host two games after the World Cup. In order to cover the staggering maintenance expenses, the management firm eventually leased the vicinity of the venue to a bus company. Ironically, the world’s second most expensive stadium had become the world’s most expensive parking lot.

On the other hand, in developed countries like America specifically, much attention was given to the general public when it comes to sports facilities. In my days in the US, I had the opportunity to visit a few public high schools in my neighbourhood. To my surprise, all these schools possess state-of-the-art training and rehabilitation facilities, one of the schools even has a mini golf course for its varsity team, with financial backing by state and federal funds. Personally, I believe prevalent access to sports venues for young players is the reason behind the dominant performance of the US team in every summer Olympics game.

In my personal opinion, it is necessary to produce top talents and promote them as role models in order to draw the general public into participating. Yao Ming, undoubtedly the most influential Chinese sports figure, almost single-handedly put basketball ahead of soccer and table tennis as the most popular game among youngsters and students in China. And it all happened in the blink of an eye after he was selected with the number one draft pick in the NBA. In this sense, I have to admit the money was well spent on exclusive facilities to train players like Yao.

To summarise, in developed countries, where other social resources from conglomerates and non-profit organizations are readily available, government should aim their funding at disposal tothe general public. However, in developing countries, specialised facilities for top athletes would be positive to the public and thus the country, given that careful planning in place to avoid misuse of already sparse resources.